U.S. Members of Congress Live
on a Food Stamp Budget

September 2007

September 18, 2007

Three well-known rabbis will join two Congress members in living for a week on meals worth a dollar.

Rabbi David Saperstein, the director of Reform's Religious Action Center, Rabbi Steve Gutow, the director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network will join Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Congress' only Muslim, and Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in taking on JCPA's "Food Stamp Challenge." .

The challenge, to be launched today, is aimed at protesting food stamp subsidies that JCPA, the umbrella body for Jewish policy makers, and other anti-poverty groups say force the poor to dine on meals costing no more than a dollar. Leaders in some 20 Jewish communities across the United States will also participate. Saperstein tied the challenge to efforts in Congress to expand food stamp funding through the pending Farm Bill.

Ellison will be joined at a news conference today by Rabbi Steve Gutow, executive director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs. They, and others, plan to live for a week on $21 -- the national average for food stamp benefits.

Ellison and others will announce a weeklong "Food Stamp Challenge." One of the goals is to raise the minimum food stamp benefit.

Ellison, a Minnesota Democrat, is the first Muslim elected to Congress. The week that he and the rabbi will join the challenge falls during Islam's holy month of Ramadan and between the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Food Frenzy. Congressional ethics reforms has everyone on watch — cocktail wieners on a toothpick, OK; pasta with a fork, bad. But this week, three more Members of Congress will be partaking in the Food Stamp Challenge and abstaining from pilfering Congressional receptions for free food.

Democratic Reps. Keith Ellison (Minn.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.) and Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) on Friday became the latest Members to take the challenge, starting a weeklong strict diet in which they will try to live on $21, the average amount food stamp recipients get. Ellison, for one, has a leg up on his colleagues. The only Muslim in Congress already has to experience fasting during the holy season of Ramadan, which began last week, and so far, Ellison spokesman Rick Jauert says he hasn’t heard of his boss having any problems keeping to the limited budget.

While passing on overcooked meatballs might not seem like a hardship, it was only a few months ago that Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) fell off the wagon midway through the challenge. At the time, an HOH tipster reported that Ryan was caught sipping a cup of coffee at Ebenezer’s Coffee House in Capitol Hill, while reportedly wearing a T-shirt promoting the campaign.

From Sept. 14-21, Rabbi Steve Gutow, Executive Director of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Rabbi David Saperstein, Director and Counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Director of the Baltimore Jewish Environmental Network, and Lois Frank, Chair of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs are participating in the Food Stamp Challenge and are encouraging others to join them.